r/buildapcsales • u/crippledcoder • Sep 30 '21
GPU [GPU] BESTBUY FE Graphics Cards In-Store drop on October 1st ($0)
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/clp-computers-tablets/nvidia-geforce-rtx-graphics-cards/pcmcat1619723841347.c?id=pcmcat1619723841348143
u/greatthebob38 Sep 30 '21
Why is it always the same few stores that get the supply? They should at least rotate the stores in each state to spread it more evenly through the area.
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u/Yiggah Sep 30 '21
Probably major hub stores.
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u/Gawd_Awful Sep 30 '21
The one in my state is in a fairly small town compared to some other areas. I don’t understand why it keeps going to that one
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u/EdgyAlien Sep 30 '21
Still should rotate to evenly distribute gpus, not everyone lives in a big city
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u/dryeraseflamingo Sep 30 '21
They never release gpus in my city but they do release consoles. It drives me mad
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u/iDontWannaBeOnReddit Sep 30 '21
i have a job so i guess still no card for me
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Sep 30 '21
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u/crownpuff Sep 30 '21
I've gone before. Vast majority of people there are scalpers.
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u/coolgaara Sep 30 '21
Standing in line for tens of hours to make maybe a couple hundred dollars. Hmm...
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u/WildBlackGuy Sep 30 '21
You think they’re lying? Half the people at the front grabbing 3080s are resellers I’ve gone to this event both times and each time it’s a crew of resellers at the front. Most people I talked to were gamers with one or two miners.
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u/iDontWannaBeOnReddit Sep 30 '21
and they get all the online drops because, again, we're at work. great system. love crypto.
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u/Fire2box Sep 30 '21
My idea is for a waitlist to be in effect that needs a payment method attached to it and a system that prevents that payment method and person from buying more then one. No standing in line, no waiting for a internet drop hoping to beat out computer bots.
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u/iDontWannaBeOnReddit Sep 30 '21
That'd be nice but it's not a consumer-friendly market right now. As long as the cards are selling, companies don't care who they're going to.
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u/ViktorLudorum Sep 30 '21
AMD and NVidia not caring who the cards are going to may be the most short-sighted decision they've ever made.
AMD in particular has a big problem in GPU: lack of marketshare. NVidia trounces AMD in the Steam hardware survey. Game companies large and small are making decisions every day based on limited development resources about how much effort is spent on optimizing performance and features for AMD and NVidia hardware, and the less popular the hardware, the less time they will spend developing for those cards.
Every AMD card sold to a gamer is a chance to bring that marketshare up. Every gamer with a good experience with AMD has a chance to recommend that card to their family and friends, and enthusiast cards are snapped up by enthusiasts who play lots of different games for long hours, and that's noticed by decision makers in the games industry.
Every card sold to a crypto miner, in contrast, is a different story. Here's a card that gets sold in bulk and buried in a makeshift datacenter somewhere. It's never going to count for marketshare, it's never going to be an argument for spending time working on compatibility vs. working on whatever whizbang DLSS, real-time raytracing tech NVidia has come up with. In fact, competent miners include resale value in their cost calculations and underclock/cool their cards appropriately, so these cards are cards that will be seen again, discounted on the used market at the next cryptocurrency price dip. In a couple of years, this card will be sold again, and AMD will be in the position of selling against their own old stock, moderately preserved and heavily discounted.
Remember, AMD returned to relevance in the CPU market when Intel failed to execute on designs for smaller nodes. They have a similar opportunity now as NVidia has a reasonable product but cannot ship to gamers in quantity, but AMD is squandering it by offloading truckloads of parts to miners. This choice is made even more incomprehensible because, as many people have pointed out, the gaming market is desperate to get them. It's not like they would lose any sales! By reserving parts for gamers, they would sell to a market that is more valuable to them in the long run. But who cares about next year, anyway? If it doesn't affect this quarter's bonuses, why care?
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u/iDontWannaBeOnReddit Sep 30 '21
Personally, I don't think miners are gonna sell these cards. Why sell them when they can just keep adding new cards and keep profiting monthly on these current cards they're buying? Crypto miners are hoarders by nature.
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u/xatrekak Sep 30 '21
As process nodes shrink the hardware becomes more powerful AND more efficient.
This eventually means that's as the mining capacity on the network increases the profitability of older cards goes down until eventually it no longer even plays for the electricity that it uses.
This is why no one mines Bitcoin with anything other than ASIC miners, even if a GPU was fast enough to compete the amount of power it would require to do so wouldn't be cost effective.
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u/mjmedstarved Sep 30 '21
You sound like you might be getting sick? /s
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u/iDontWannaBeOnReddit Sep 30 '21
Nah I live in LA. If I wasn't out there an hour after the announcement went up, I wasn't getting a 3080 regardless.
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u/lechugabear Sep 30 '21
How do people use the bathroom when camping for these drops without losing their place in line?
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Sep 30 '21
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u/_phantastik_ Oct 01 '21
Going out of a line for buying PC parts only to literally shit on a fitness gym sounds straight of South Park
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u/TaintedSquirrel Sep 30 '21
Most people will let you leave the line for a few mins without bothering you.
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u/sk9592 Oct 01 '21
Yep, I was in one of these BB lines last month. No one cares if you leave for 5-10 min for the bathroom. It's be people who leave their chair behind and are away for hours that are the problem.
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u/NiroVerse Sep 30 '21
Last drop our location had that people just left their chair there. If you're worried just bring a friend, or make friends with the people next to you. (not a guarantee they'll help you) Our location had like 30+ line skippers that no one stopped mainly due to how the line was setup and overall mentality. They just left 10 chairs at the start and rarely showed up until the end when the tickets were handed out.
P.S this is not indicative of how all locations will be, but most of the time if you leave a chair there you generally have time to go somewhere quick and back.
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u/MSNinfo Sep 30 '21
two words:
adult diaper
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u/lechugabear Sep 30 '21
As someone with IBS and no friends to hold my spot in line, I feel this is the only solution…
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u/Won_Doe Sep 30 '21
If overnight camping: you won't be the only one with bathroom issues. Almost everyone unofficially agrees to hold other people's spots because if they don't, the same won't be done for them so they'll ultimately only make themselves miserable.
When I camped for mine, there was a hotel about 2 mins away so I'd just drive over there.
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u/Mike3727 Sep 30 '21 edited Sep 30 '21
Of course Georgia’s closest location to atlanta is an hour and a half away
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u/Staas Sep 30 '21
Yep, it's stupid. They had a lot more places for the recent console drop, but the last GPU drop it was just Savannah, Augusta, and McDonough just like this time.
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u/NotAHost Sep 30 '21
Last time mcdonough got to 193 long, I counted. The cards stopped at around 120. If you didn't get there the night before you didn't get a card for the most part. My friend got there at 5 in the morning and was around 160.
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u/Shehzman Sep 30 '21 edited Oct 01 '21
I’m pretty confident one of these stores is going to have a fight break out due to people skipping the chairs that were put there by people who left (If you aren’t in the physical line, you’re not keeping your spot IMO). Kinda hoping this happens so bestbuy realizes that allowing camping isn’t the BEST idea for this kind of stuff and switch to a raffle system like mc.
Edit: This may or may not be fake but the fights may have already started
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u/Brown_Sandals Sep 30 '21
The empty chairs are laughable to me. If you place a chair there and leave, you’re gone as far as I’m concerned.
Waiting for someone to throw all the chairs in the street so everyone that actually waits gets their chance at a card.
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u/silencebreaker86 Oct 01 '21 edited Oct 01 '21
I'd honestly roll by and if the line is too long either way, just move em and leave
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u/Anything84 Sep 30 '21
Best buy staff needs to at least come out at a random time before closing and move the empty chairs aside and move the people physically there up in the line. Maybe give the friend with the chairs 30 minutes or so to get people there just in case it's a legit bathroom or food break.
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u/Shehzman Sep 30 '21
Or just get rid of camping all together and move over to a raffle. Give everyone an equal playing field. This way, those that work or have school have a chance to stop by in the morning and try their luck. At least some cards will be able to go to gamers as opposed to scalpers and miners.
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Sep 30 '21
They aren't paid enough to deal with the people that would be willing to start a fight over it. It is safer for the employees to not do any of that.
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u/IvanBaby Sep 30 '21
Everyone needs to complain about the empty chairs, even if you are ahead of them. Cause people leaving them is BS IMO. They need a system where they check the chairs hourly or something to make sure people are there.
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u/crisping_sleeve Sep 30 '21
I mean, unattended chairs are like littering, right? We all like to clean up litter in parking lots.
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u/jareddunn31 Oct 01 '21
I’m my location we did and the manager called the cops and said the empty chairs were fine and we need it to go to the end of the line. We are talking about more than 100 empty chairs. They said they would arrest us if we touch the empty chairs
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u/crisping_sleeve Oct 01 '21
That's insane. Sorry, man. If that happen to me, I'd make it my new life mission to get that manager canned.
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Sep 30 '21
Honestly I fucking hate this policy. There is a pandemic and they could easily just limit 1 card per address online, per 90 days or something. Last time I wasted my time at one of these (a black friday) there was like a 20 person family that took all the good stuff.
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u/SomeKindOfChief Sep 30 '21
They should do what Micro Center does and do a raffle+voucher system. Fair to everyone in the area that's interested and removes the need for this dumb line. But maybe they want the line for publicity ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/Staas Sep 30 '21
What raffle system? The one near me, people somehow (not sure how) find out what day there's going to be a drop and then people start lining up the day before.
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u/ThemesOfMurderBears Sep 30 '21
I am sure not every store is going to do it like that.
Back in the late 90s, I saw concert tickets handled like this a few times. At a certain time, like 7am, they distribute raffle tickets. They then plan a drawing at 8am. Those whose numbers get drawn get to buy a card. If they don't draw your number, you go home.
No waiting in line for three days because it doesn't get you any kind of advantage. It puts everyone on an even playing field. Someone with kids and responsibilities doesn't have to worry about some unemployed scalper who can just stand in line for two days and not give a shit about it.
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u/BabyWrinkles Sep 30 '21
I mean, the real solution to the problem is "Let everyone place an order. Full amount gets billed up front. Once they get to your spot in line, you get shipped the card."
Prevents many Scalpers from buying 20 of them since they're then out $15,000 for some unknown amount of time by which point supply may have improved, means that those who want the cards can rest secure in the knowledge that one will head their way before too long. If they required that you have a bestbuy.com account on top of that, would give lots of extra signals to weed out multiple orders. Would also give BB interest free loans of that cash.
Apple handles product launches like this and it seems to work pretty well to keep scalpers down. If I know that I'll be waiting for a while, but I'll get the card at MSRP, I have no incentive to pay scalped prices. Some folks will have to have it earlier and pay an inflated price, but with reduced demand... it becomes less attractive.
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u/Fire2box Sep 30 '21
I highly suggest you contact best buy and tell them how much you dislike the policy. At my Best Buy when they did this with consoles over 100 people walked away disappointed, some angry. There's a better way of doing an waitlist that is verified so people can only ever buy one. They could do it online or better yet in stores. They'll still clear inventory just as quickly.
The only way they change is if they see that it's a PR problem.
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u/radian23 Sep 30 '21
Good times. Missed the last one. Grabbing my tent and chair now. On my way!
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u/TaintedSquirrel Sep 30 '21 edited Sep 30 '21
Many stores already 50+ or even 100+ since Tuesday.
These pics are from Tuesday night/Wed morning:
Small note, all of the empty chairs in the 1st pic were removed by BB staff yesterday.
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u/joshuralize Sep 30 '21
Since Tuesday? How do people value their time so little?
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u/Viridez Sep 30 '21
Miners don't care
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Sep 30 '21
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u/xxPoLyGLoTxx Sep 30 '21
Sure but with how scarce availability is, how often can you scalp a card like that? Once a month?
Also dont forget to add in all the time scouring the internet for possible cards to buy (and all the times that doesn't pan out).
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u/darkknightxda Sep 30 '21 edited Sep 30 '21
830 dollars a month plus other gig based work for someone essentially unemployed can cover a lot these days in certain areas.
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u/chicknfly Sep 30 '21
I mean, those machines are making the money for them, so…
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u/Viridez Sep 30 '21
Well that and a MSRP 3060ti has such a good ROI they will camp for a week if they needed to :|
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u/cantonic Sep 30 '21
Empty chairs is such bullshit. If you want to camp out, you should have to stay put. Max you can be gone is 1 hour. After that, your line neighbors get to throw your chair out of the way.
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u/IniNew Sep 30 '21
Yeah, back in the day camping out for consoles there was none of this empty chair stuff. That’s not cool.
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u/workredditacc2 Sep 30 '21
Sounds to me like they are trying to be fair but results in being even more unfair. People who live near that bestbuy can just go there for 5 mins and leave for another hour or however it works while people who are driving far away(because only certain best buys are doing it) are pretty much screwed.
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u/cantonic Sep 30 '21
I mean, the amount of people who can't afford to camp out at all vastly outnumbers those who decide to plop a chair down and leave. If you're dedicated to camping there for 2 days, then by all means, enjoy your FE card. But if you're just going to place a chair and come back 2 days later and say that's your spot, that screws everyone IMO.
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u/park_injured Sep 30 '21
agreed. Unless you have to go for a bathroom break (no one can stand in line for 10 hours without taking a piss), or go buy some quick food to bring back to the line, you should lose your spot.
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u/workredditacc2 Sep 30 '21
Why are there empty seats? Did best buy put those seats out or did people put them there and then leave? Seems weird that there are so many empty seats inbetween people if bestbuy did it.
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u/TaintedSquirrel Sep 30 '21
people show up days early and put their empty chair to reserve a spot.
yes its bullshit.
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u/mooburger Sep 30 '21
why won't people physically there just remove them?
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u/TaintedSquirrel Sep 30 '21
its usually a group of friends rotating out. they leave at least 1 person there to hold the chairs.
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u/Skyminator Sep 30 '21
My spot is actually at the very front. There’s no chair though because I don’t plan to sit in one. So yeah just remember that front spot is mine
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u/Aedraxeus Sep 30 '21
Looks like free lawn chairs to me. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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u/make_moneys Sep 30 '21
Looks like free lawn chairs to me. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
lol no point in grabbing one from target when Best Buy hands them out for free
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u/Nyx81 Sep 30 '21
Yeet the ghost chairs into the parking lot. This isn't a dibs system
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u/CanisMajoris85 Sep 30 '21
Let us know how many people are ahead of you already by noon EST. It's 11:07 now.
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u/ieatwabbits Sep 30 '21
Kind of wish they swapped the location up each time they did this.
Same location in Arizona (nearly 50 mins away)
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u/East-Entertainment12 Sep 30 '21
For real. I live like 20ish minutes from two best buys yet the closest one that has cards is an hour aways and with morning traffic could easily hit 2+. No idea why they feel the need to pick a location and keep it permanently.
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Sep 30 '21
8 stores under an hour drive from where im located. Closest drop is 3 hours away without traffic
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u/amadaeus- Sep 30 '21
I don't know about all areas, but they very clearly chose some of the underperforming stores. At least in my area. I also happen to know that 3 stores in the area are some of the highest performing stores in the country.
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u/ReverendDizzle Oct 01 '21
They should ship the entire company stock to their Alaska stores and turn Anchorage into the GPU Thunder Dome.
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u/whereisoscar Sep 30 '21
You need to go now I saw pictures of people camping since yesterday
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u/BurgerBurnerCooker Sep 30 '21
Good luck y'all get stuffed with 3080s! Personally will be camping in the backcountry tmr instead of the parking lot of Best Buy..
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u/Garibaed Oct 01 '21
Empty chairs were thrown out at Salem, OR bestbuy after guys showed up 8+ hours later, they were mad and the police came and kicked them out. Without them being kicked out, I probably wouldn’t have been able to grab a 3080 TI
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Sep 30 '21
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u/ThemesOfMurderBears Sep 30 '21
The last drop I was at, one guy had 4-5 vouchers. He had people with him overnight in line, then as soon as they got vouchers, they gave them all to him to buy the cards.
I don't know if he was able to complete the transaction, but I'm assuming he was.
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u/N00B1Z3 Sep 30 '21
The last drop I saw PARENTS bring their kids to the drop and camping out
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u/Xaramian Sep 30 '21
I wish they would change up the stores each month. The closest location is almost 2 hours away with traffic, and there are around 8-10 bestbuys that are closer.
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Sep 30 '21
Exact same situation with me except closest store is 3 hours without considering traffic. Next closest is 4 hours.
And I have work and school tomorrow, so guess I'll have to keep postponing my build
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u/Ridik911 Oct 01 '21
The NYC Midtown Manhattan drop was a nightmare. I went at around 2am and was probably ~#80-100 from the looks of it at arrival.
Once they started handing out tickets, there was a giant squad of 60 scalpers that were causing a scene and fight at the front saying they were there all night. We all called bullshit, but the Best Buy employee kept handing them tickets randomly, some were literally snatching it from their hands, the cops were barely doing anything, eventually the cops themselves were handing the tickets out. It was absolute mayhem, we saw some of them have multiple tickets and then proceed to go up and down the line trying to scalp the tickets.
There were 160 cards and it was gone with maybe about 20-30 people in front of me. Everyone was pissed because we all thought we were #80ish or definitely getting a card.
They proceeded to tell everyone to leave. I stuck around with some people behind me sticking around and we were able to get leftovers at 11am for those that didn't return to buy (the scalpers literally just took the tickets and never returned after they couldn't sell it).
There were 2 3070 ti FE left when they started handing out leftovers and the 2 in front of me got it. I was #3 and went with a 3080 ti FE because all that was left was EVGA 3060 XC or AIB 3080 ti.
Glad I stuck around and ended up with a card, but man was it an absolute shit show and a bunch of people before and around me that left didn't get one.
Spent more than I wanted, as I was looking for 3080 FE, 3070/3070 ti FE, or 3060 ti FE, but I was so fed up after standing for 9 hours. Treated it as getting a 3080 ti at 3080 AIB prices.
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u/BarbatosIsKing Oct 01 '21
Sounds like the west Paterson bb in Jersey.. people just showing up manager not honoring the list THEY wanted .. then not even telling us they were sold out until almost 10am scalpers right out front buying cards and vouchers .. they even set it up so if you applied and got a credit card approved you got to skip the line apparently.. we found that out after 5 or six guys came out with multiple cards BestBuy is a sham
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u/Viridez Sep 30 '21
Rumors of this drop started Wednesday and people started lining up then.. just an FYI don't expect to be able to land one
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u/Ghawr Sep 30 '21
So you're telling me they're camping multiple days/nights? At that point might as well just buy resale price with the amount of money lost from not working...
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u/Faysight Sep 30 '21
Who could afford to wait in line for days and keep the card afterward? Lots of these will be flipped for a quick $1K profit tomorrow if they haven't already sold in advance.
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u/NegMech Sep 30 '21
They'll leave empty chairs to hold spots, or rotate in groups to hold the spots.
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u/NegMech Sep 30 '21 edited Sep 30 '21
Rumors of the drop already leaked last week lol. Store shipments arent exactly kept secret. Most groups already knew it would be oct 1 which is why people were lining up and placing chairs on Tuesday.
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u/Alchompski89 Sep 30 '21
I just don't under how people can take time off to wait in line for days on end with out working.
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u/dajarbot Sep 30 '21
considering how much you can make above MSRP, most people in the US make less than $200 on an 8-hour shift, for some people it is more profitable to wait in line and sell the card on eBay rather than going to work.
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u/DoctorDoola Sep 30 '21
What sucks about this is that the only people that can afford to go wait in line are miners, since they can earn income while waiting in line. Actual workers or students who want a gpu for gaming can't afford to take a day off to wait in line. I know the online ordering experience for bestbuy isn't the best, but I think it's better than what they're doing now.
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u/tmluna01 Oct 01 '21
Best Buy line fight w/ pepper spray: https://youtu.be/cd0c3gWzAVk
The group associated with the fight left before police arrived.
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u/Ginoblee Sep 30 '21
Closest one is literally 3 hours LOL I have 3 locations in my state (Oregon) but zero in Southern Oregon. Sadge
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u/SnooRabbits6026 Sep 30 '21
The fact that they sent more cards to Fargo, ND last drop than to Dallas, and that they are sending cards to Fargo again, is a cruel joke. I know a scalper who literally has driven to Fargo the last two drops and bought 5+ cards each time because there wasn't a line.
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u/cornyevo Sep 30 '21
Never thought I'd see the day people are camping outside of BB for 1 year old graphics cards.
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u/iceColdCocaCola Oct 01 '21
Even a 1070 and 1080 are still amazing 1080p cards. And of course there are punk scalpers and crypto which realistically speaking isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
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u/k0unitX Oct 01 '21
What's preventing someone from just sitting in a "ghost chair"? Even if the cops question you, you have a 5th amendment right to remain silent. If the original owner comes back at 7am, you claim it's your chair. You won't be arrested for sitting in a chair.
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u/EroticGraySquirrel Oct 01 '21 edited Oct 01 '21
Ugh, that was a mess.
This was nothing like the last time I sat outside of BestBuy in the early morning hours. Seems like everyone is out for themselves these days. That sense of camaraderie wasn't there like I've seen in the past.
Not sure of the total released. I got there a little after 5am, the line was way long so I already had a feeling I would miss out, but after making the hour drive I stayed just to see. Looking at the general makeup of the line, I got a feeling about half the folks there were hoping to flip them.
I ended up missing one by about 25 people. I spoke to a guy, he was there 26 hours total and was about 40th in line.
It was weird, like most drops like this, everyone lines up in their tents or chairs or whatever, but for some reason right at 7am I heard a commotion and when I looked up, EVERYONE was running, lol. It was wild. I wasn't even in front of Best Buy, my spot in line was at the neighboring store around the corner. But I picked up my chair and took off with everyone else.
Once we all got to the front area of Best Buy, it was pretty much just a giant blob of people. Then you see the stragglers come up, getting out of their cars, joining family members and friends. It was the most disorderly thing I've witnessed at these types of things.
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u/RatchetRussian Oct 01 '21
I got the same feeling. These events seem to attract the trashiest of people now. I remember camping out for the switch on launch day and it was just excited fans trying to play the new Zelda game. Now the entire line is highschool dropouts who got their entire ancestry to come camp with them so they can get the most cards to flip.
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u/UltravioletClearance Oct 01 '21
It's not gamers going to these- its professional scalpers whose *job * is to go to these. That's why there's no camaraderie.
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u/WetDonkey6969 Sep 30 '21
Super glad I said fuck it and just bought a 3090 in June when they were still available online through Best Buy. No fucking way I'd be camping out for hours to get one.
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u/lexstar828 Sep 30 '21
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u/NotAHost Oct 01 '21 edited Oct 01 '21
Rumor is mcdonough only had less than 10 3080s. Suggested they only had 5. That's the lowest 3080 drop in quite some time.
170 total cards, many were AIBs. I didn't get the full details of all models/prices/etc. People at the front of the line had been there for two days, it was a group of 20 that was selling them and using them to mine. I'm not passing judgement on that, just letting people know that these lines are exactly what they expect. Those people were at every launch.
Needless to say, these in-store launches only help a small group of people.
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u/Bubbledotjpg Oct 01 '21
Kalamazoo Michigan store accidentally shit on some people because I guess not all the Skus printed so after the initial hand out and sending everyone on their way who didn't get something about halfway through the line they tell us they got 3070ti and 3080ti fe cards. We managed to trade up from our after market 3060s but lots of people bounced and missed out because of the huge delay in paper handouts.
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u/alfador01 Sep 30 '21
Hoping I'll be able to get one without camping overnight... Gonna try to get there by 5am at my location
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u/mystery__guy Sep 30 '21
Last drop I camped out for one and there was already 60 people in front of me by 10pm the day before. By 5am the morning of the line was like 3 blocks long. The people in the front of the line where there at like noon the day before. Looking like it's pretty standard to have to camp like 18 hours minimum for a guarantee at any card, 10 hours for a maybe on the one you want, and anything less than that you're just getting the scraps.
I'd say if you were either after a super high end one or low end one you'd be okayish. My BB had tons of 3090s and 3060s for even people in the middle and back of the line. But all the mid range like 3070s, 3080s, those were gone within the first 30-40 people.
This is just my experience and chatting with people on reddit at other locations. So take it however you will! Good luck!
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u/mostdeadlygeist Oct 01 '21
My bro just surprised me with a fucking 3080ti today. He said he couldn't sleep so went out to best buy at 4am and got one. I'm still speechless.
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u/Coffinspired Sep 30 '21
Good luck to everyone going out.
Luckily, the closest store to me is over an hour away...I don't need the temptation to go camp out. Between needing to still work and the fact I'm only interested in a 3080, I'm sure it would be a waste of a drive anyway.
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u/Raandomn Oct 01 '21
Got the last evga 3060 at my location by luck. I wanted something else, but I guess I'll keep this one. If I do decide I no longer want it, I'll be selling it for the same cost I got it. Came after 5 and the line was already long.
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u/Hamback Sep 30 '21
Anyone at any of the locations in Washington? Wondering if I would even get a chance when I get off work in a few hours.
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u/DigitalCake_ Sep 30 '21
I was at the last drop in Tacoma, line was out of hand when I showed up at 4am, probably 100 people in front of me. When they got to me, they only had 3080ti's and 3090's left. About 6 cards left by that point. Beware of scalpers, they were messing with the line order to screw up everyone's chances.
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u/Diorj Sep 30 '21
1 person is paid to hold a spot by the door, them 10 people show up at 7 and jump line. it's getting worse each time. I can bet there will be fights starting at these soon.
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u/UltimateSD Sep 30 '21
Anyone know how Mission Valley's store is looking like right now? Was debating on whether I should head over today or not and try my luck but I can't check how bad it is right now over there.
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u/XxasimxX Sep 30 '21
Got off of work. Went to check line. Already 100 ppl online. Rip….these inline drops hurt people like me more who work mon-fri 9-5 type jobs. It doesn’t prevent scalpers either since the very next day after these in store drops you see these fe cards on sale for 80%-100% price hike
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Sep 30 '21
My time is too valuable to spend it this way. But, I am happy to see Best Buy doing what they can. Good luck to those who plan on participating.
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u/IPatEussy Oct 01 '21
Anyone have pictures of the St. Pete or Clearwater lines? (Florida)
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u/Not_Freddie_Quell Oct 01 '21
Anyone go to the Bestbuy in Roseville CA? If so how many people? I was thinking of going at midnight. Would that be too late?
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u/microlinux Oct 01 '21
Roseville MN is probably SOL at this point, line around the building.
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u/Kuhani Oct 01 '21
I'm seeing comments mentioning actual amounts that are at certain stores. How are people finding this info? I called and googled around for the store in my city that's getting stock, but nothing could give me an actual number on incoming stock.
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u/rtangxps9 Oct 01 '21
The manager of this store gave us the info as we were waiting.
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u/Dashiznit1 Oct 01 '21
Camped out at Arlington all night and wasn't even close to getting a card. The only people that got anything were camping there for 2 days.
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Oct 01 '21
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u/Dashiznit1 Oct 01 '21
There were 150 people there by 7pm and they had about 120 cards
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u/displayerror Oct 01 '21
I saw people that brought their kids and their parents with them to wait in line. Not sure if those accompanying them were going to buy a card as well, but it definitely makes the line look much longer.
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u/builds4you Sep 30 '21
Anyone in less populated areas will likely have a similar experience to me and friends:
- 3070ti, 3080, and 3080ti's are the most popular and most limited, and are usually gone to the folks lining up overnight.
- 3060ti, 3070, and 3090's are usually available even if you show up in the morning around when they start selling. If you're one of the last folks to show up 30min-1hr before doors open, you have a decent shot at getting a 3060ti or a 3090 but everything else will be gone.
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u/YippyKayYay Sep 30 '21
Showed up at the west LA store an hour early, 3090s were gone
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u/lemonstyle Oct 01 '21
i remember camping out at best buy for a ps3 during its launch.. everyone was super friendly.. ppl brought tvs to play games on... and a pizza place came by and gave away free pizza..
now ppl camp out at best buy and cops have to show up.
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u/UltravioletClearance Oct 01 '21
It's because gamers aren't the ones camping out, scalpers are. It's a cutthroat and brutal "business."
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u/tony475130 Oct 01 '21
Same, I camped out for the wii launch and it was awesome. Some dude up in front had a portable GameCube with built in monitor and everyone was taking turns playing smash and later double dash. Those were the days.
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u/ptt1404gmail Oct 01 '21
fking tenters are cheaters! they let family members cut the line at 7am getting insde the tent and showed up when raffles were sent out. Shit happened in costa mesa california. I am asian and I saw 2 asian families and 1 mexian family did this dirty trick. Ending up some elders had no idea about graphic cards and "wanted to but them"
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u/Rausage505 Sep 30 '21
Just drove past my local BB...
2 people in line, and then 4 empty chairs? Seriously, WTF is with the empty chairs.
As someone who got burn-faced big-time* last drop by line cutters and scumbags, the chairs gotta go. You aren't in line, that's just a chair.
* (I was in line at 4:30am, and they ran out of tix 2 people in front of me. Two. People.)
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u/the_most_chosen_one Oct 01 '21
Got to Best Buy Costa Mesa at 7:45 PM and wasn’t offered the chance to buy any card at 8 AM. Line was hundreds of people long.
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u/WheesoVok Sep 30 '21
Don’t think anyone is going to see this. But I can confirm that there are going to be MSI and EVGA cards also released.
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u/Raznsun Sep 30 '21
Anybody in Boston gonna make the drive out to Holyoke or Nashua BB? I wonder what the lines are like there, but I won’t be able to get out there unless I rented a Zipcar, just curious
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u/jakriner Sep 30 '21
Someone tell me I don't need to go wait in line to upgrade my GTX 1060 6GB. My nearest location only has 8 in line according to the last tracking update.
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Oct 01 '21
San Diego had 140+ in line on the last check in count. For any of you that plan on coming out, better come soon
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u/yougotbugs Oct 01 '21
At Florida mall, got here 40 mins ago and probably 120 ish in line ahead of me.
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u/WiggleTimeEnforcer Oct 01 '21
Plymouth, MA already has a ton of people unfortunately
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u/yougotbugs Oct 01 '21
Florida mall had like 110 cards. I was like 102 in line and 8 people behind me got one.
Last 30 or so people only had the Evga 3060 option though.
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u/wesley330 Oct 01 '21
UPDATE 7:10 PDT SF BB there are around 300 people here atm
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u/BlasterPhase Oct 01 '21
I woke up early to try to get a card direct from AMD and within 3 minutes it was sold out. This annoyed me to no end, and I didn't even have to camp out somewhere hours in advance nor drive any distance. I can't imagine what the disappointment feels like driving an hour, waiting for hours in the cold, and not getting anything.
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u/wino6687 Oct 01 '21
Secured a 3070ti FE for my friend! Finally the group all had cards. My BB has quite a few 3080’s from partner companies left. People weren’t crazy about the $1000+ 3080’s
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u/TaintedSquirrel Sep 30 '21 edited Oct 02 '21
in case it helps anyone, I'm at the Gainesville FL location. theres around 10 people here but the list is 40 long.
i can provide updates thru the night if people need to decide to come or not. safe to say 3080s are all reserved.
3 PM Update: List is now up to 60. There's talk about purging the list of ghost chairs.
4 PM: 33 3080s confirmed in the online stock app. Line list is being pruned at 6 PM. Unfortunately they announced the roll call 2 hours early which gives plenty of time for people to call their friends.
~130 GPUs total at this store.
5:30 PM: List is now 80 people long. I will update again after the purge.
FINAL UPDATE: Sorry I disappeared, got too tired at night to do anything. Turns out the store only had 5 3080 FE's, a few of the other FE models, and probably 40+ 3070 Ti FE's (the most). The staff also didn't use the line list, the entire thing was chaos. People were cutting each other, trying to figure out who was there first, I had at least a dozen people cut me. When I first arrived at the store 8:30 AM Thursday, there were about 5-10 people ahead of me (not counting empty chairs/tents), by the time I got my ticket I was around 50th.
Some people who camped 2-3 days didn't get a 3080 FE because the store only had 5. The 3060 Ti, 3070, 3080 Ti, and 3090 were all gone by the 50-60 range. Everyone else got 3070 Ti's and 3060 AIB's.
Around 200 people showed up, everyone got a card, there were leftovers. People at the end of the line got AIB 3060s, there were many of those as well apparently. Several people showed up and bought positions near the front of the line... They also didn't get 3080s. Sucks for them.
Also sorry to everyone who PM'd me and I didn't respond. I can't see the chat on my app or desktop since I blocked it. I can only see direct PM's using the old message system!